financial poll

eskamo · April 2011

I am so incredibly bored, and our board has been dead lately. Sooo here is a poll!

What are your financial goals this year? 5 years?

Would you rather have zero debt and zero savings or significant savings and decent debt?

Is there such a thing as financially stable?

Do you have a monthly budget? Do you follow it?

What do you think of the Extreme Coupon show? Would you devote that much time to couponing?

pandasquishy · April 2011

Hubs is mostly in charge of our budget, but let's see...

What are your financial goals this year? 5 years? This year I think our financial goal is to have enough money to pay rent, lol. In five years we'll start paying back med school loans. Not sure the exact timeline of when we start that.Would you rather have zero debt and zero savings or significant savings and decent debt? Probably somewhere in the middle. I hate have debt, but having a savings is very important to me.Is there such a thing as financially stable? Sure there is, but it's not me right now.Do you have a monthly budget? Do you follow it? Our budgets stretch four months at a time based on H's school loan checks. We have to follow it or we'd be out in a cardboard box. Or begging for money from his parents, which I hate.What do you think of the Extreme Coupon show? Would you devote that much time to couponing? i haven't seen it, but I hear it's not beneficial to do it. Aren't these people buying a bunch of stuff they don't even need because they can get it for free? And have mini warehouses in their basements? Who needs 29 bottles of salad dressing? it would expire before you could use it, not to mention most of the stuff you get coupons for is processed stuff. If you're only eating your coupon stuff, you probably aren't eating a well balanced diet.

Noron · April 2011

What are your financial goals this year? 5 years? This year - to pay for our two vacations (Mexico in September, Hawaii in December) and pay for H's summer school in full (he doesn't get loans or FA for summer school)

Would you rather have zero debt and zero savings or significant savings and decent debt? Significant savings and decent debt, without a doubt. Without savings, it would be hard to pay for all the little, unexpected things that can go wrong (car repairs, unexpected house repairs, etc.) without going in to debit - THEN we'd have zero savings AND debt! No thanks.

Is there such a thing as financially stable?Probably, but not to me or H. We're both money worriers that think we'll never have enough.

Do you have a monthly budget? Do you follow it? We're not strict enough about a budget, but we really should be. For now, we just don't spend on much of anything. Once H graduates and starts working FT it'll be a bit easier to spend more freely.

What do you think of the Extreme Coupon show? Would you devote that much time to couponing? I've never seen it, but I'm not much of a coupon-er. I'm pretty good at finding the best deal at the store, but I hardly ever take the time to coupon. To me, time is money - if I'm spending hours looking for stupid $.30 coupons, it's not worth it.

musgral8 · April 2011

eskamo:
I am so incredibly bored, and our board has been dead lately. Sooo here is a poll!
What are your financial goals this year? 5 years?
Oh gosh, I have no idea. This year we want to pay off my car. In 5 years I hope to have a significant amount of my student loans paid off.
Would you rather have zero debt and zero savings or significant savings and decent debt?
Depends on what decent debt means. I'd rather have the savings and decent debt. If you have debt, as long as its responsible, then you have credit. If you have no savings and no debt you basically have nothing. With no debt you'll be hard pressed to get a credit-card that you could use if you ever needed emergency money.
Is there such a thing as financially stable?
Sure, but for me it means having minimal debt and a good enough income that I can max out an IRA, max out my 401K contributions, be able to put 1/2 in savings and then have the rest to live on comfortably. All of this while having paid off student loans and cars. It's a tall order.
Do you have a monthly budget? Do you follow it?
No, hubs is on commission so we adjust our spending accordingly. I have a monthly paycheck that buys groceries and gas and his goes to bills, household expenses, etc. We live very sparingly so that when times are lean we are used to it. When he makes good money it all goes into savings.
What do you think of the Extreme Coupon show? Would you devote that much time to couponing?
I think they're crazy. That is seriously OCD. I agree with pp that said what you can get with coupons is generally junk food. I've never seen a coupon for a red bell pepper and being as though I do the majority of my shopping at the Farmers Market and we buy local, organic beef/pork from a co-op it would do me no good. Once in awhile if we get one for toothpaste I'll use it lol.

Shazzie116 · April 2011

What are your financial goals this year? 5 years? By the end of this year, my car will be paid off (woo!) and the goal is to pay off all of our credit card debt. We both made the mistake of opening a lot of store cards right out of college and we're in much better shape than we were 3 or 4 years ago, so we just want to really lay into them this year and get it off our backs.

Would you rather have zero debt and zero savings or significant savings and decent debt? Significant savings and decent debt. The way I see it, esp. with student loans, there'll always be something to pay off and I'd rather show we can make payments to be able to get a good mortgage someday. Having been boned a couple times needing car repairs with next to nothing saved, it really crunched me in the past to not have anything socked away.

Is there such a thing as financially stable? I think so. I think it comes with equal parts planning and awareness. Being prepared with an emergency fund, sticking to a budget, and knowing what you're spending money on (looking at your bank statements, not making impulse purchases all the time, etc.). Do I think it's easy? No.

Do you have a monthly budget? Do you follow it? We have a weekly budget that we have planned out 1.5 to 2 months in advance. We're getting better at the following part and tightening up on our spending.

What do you think of the Extreme Coupon show? Would you devote that much time to couponing?I find it fascinating and disturbing. I think people who do this have a compulsion, like they get off on standing there at the register watching the numbers fly off the screen. I do think big families who do this because of the numbers of mouths they have to feed are smart and good for them, but I worry about the quality of the food they're buying and feeding to their kids, just because it's a "deal".

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